Around Us

From The Herald

Published 12:52 pm, Monday, April 16, 2012

AMARILLO — Amarillo police are searching for a man who they said robbed a bank Saturday afternoon.

Shortly before 3 p.m., officers responded to a bank robbery at Woodforest National Bank in Walmart, 3700 E. Interstate 40. The man entered as bank employees began to close for the day, said Lt. Martin Birkenfeld.

Birkenfeld said the man, who carried a shirt, demanded money from tellers after the last customer left. Police said the man gave tellers a note that implied he had a weapon. Employees told officers the weapon might have been rolled up in the shirt.

Employees handed an undisclosed amount of cash to the man, who ran east from the eastern door, police said.

The four employees were not injured, Birkenfeld said. The bank manager declined to comment.

Investigators dusted for fingerprints and footprints as other officers searched the area. Police are seeking a white man in his late 20s, about 6 feet tall and about 180 pounds. He was wearing sunglasses, a white flat cap and a yellow shirt, police said. — Amarillo Globe-News

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LUBBOCK — Bail was set at $500,000 Saturday for the man charged with murdering a 32-year-old woman, described by family as his ex-girlfriend.

Steve Ballesteros, 41, remained in the Lubbock County Criminal Detention Center on Saturday afternoon after he was arrested just after noon Friday following a brief vehicle chase with police near the crime scene in the 2900 block of 45th Street.

Maria Perez was found dead just before 9:30 a.m. Friday in her residence at the Gatewood Apartment Complex. Perez was found unconscious by at least one of her four children, who initially believed she was asleep. The children summoned a maintenance man for the complex and police were notified shortly after.

Ballesteros is charged with first-degree felony murder and also is being held on an unrelated parole violation.

At one point, Ballesteros drove by the apartment complex as police investigated the scene, pointing toward officers and yelling, “Here I am!”

At least two police vehicles pursued his SUV on 45th Street. Thirty minutes later, the Toyota 4Runner smashed into a pole at Canton Avenue and 50th Street. Ballesteros was arrested on the spot.

Perez’s cause and time of death are pending discovery through the Lubbock Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ballesteros was previously convicted on a 1989 burglary of a habitation charge in Lubbock County, court records show. — Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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AMARILLO — An Arizona man was charged with criminally negligent homicide nearly a year after a fatal accident in northwest Amarillo.

Enrique Ventura-Lopez was booked into the Potter County jail Thursday on the charge, jail officials said. The charge, a state jail felony, carries a maximum two-year sentence or a $10,000 fine.

Lopez remained at the jail Saturday in lieu of a $100,000 bond and a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, jail officials said.

On April 7, 2011, Ventura-Lopez, 50, was driving a tractor-trailer and taking the Loop 335 exit from Tascosa Road when he failed to yield the right of way, Department of Public Safety officials said at the time.

Ventura-Lopez of Buckeye, Ariz., struck the passenger side of a Mercury Grand Marquis, troopers said.

The sedan’s passenger, Delpha Marie Tackett, 78, of Amarillo died from injuries sustained in the accident, authorities said.